Join Avery Fischer Udagawa, translator of the 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award winner, Temple Alley Summer, author Jeff Chiba Stearns, and translator Cathy Hirano at a virtual event hosted by the Japan Foundation to discuss the specific challenges of localizing Japanese culture and language for a younger, English-speaking readership.

When: March 3 at 8pm EST
Where: Online, via The Japan Foundation

Avery Fischer Udagawa’s translations of children’s literature from Japanese include the 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award-winning novel Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Miho Satake, and the historical novel J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965 by Shogo Oketani. Her short story translations have appeared in Kyoto Journal, Words Without Borders, Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories, The Best Asian Short Stories 2018, and A Tapestry of Colours 1: Stories from Asia. Born in Kansas, she lives near Bangkok.

Cathy Hirano’s translations of Japanese YA fiction and fantasy have won several awards, including Mildred L. Batchelder Awards and Honors and a 2020 Michael L. Printz Honor award for The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi. Her translations of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and its sequels by Marie Kondo are international bestsellers. Her translation of Anne’s Cradle: The Life & Works of Hanako Muraoka, the Japanese translator of Anne of Green Gables, was published in 2021.

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an Emmy nominated and Webby award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker, as well as an acclaimed author and illustrator. Jeff has also written and illustrated the children’s books Mixed Critters (2018) and Nori and His Delicious Dreams (2020) and has just released his first graphic novel, On Being Yukiko (2021).